Taylor Swift made history at the 2009 CMA Awards on Wednesday when the 19-year-old became the youngest artist ever to win the Entertainer of the Year award. Swift also won the other three awards she was nominated for: Best Female Vocalist, Album of the Year and Video of the Year.
"I'll never forget this moment because in this moment everything that I have ever wanted has just happened to me," Swift said through tears.
"Every single person in that category let me open up for them this year. Thank you all so much. I love you."
Darius Rucker also made history when he became only the second African-American to win a major individual CMA for his first country album, "Learn to Live". Rucker, the frontman of one of my personal all-time favorite bands Hootie and the Blowfish was a fan favorite, running into the crowd during his performance of "Alright."
"First of all, to the fans, thank y'all for accepting me," Rucker said in his acceptance speech. "And I think most importantly, to country radio, you took a chance on a pop singer from Charleston, S.C. Thank you so much for that!"
Some of the other CMA performers included George Straight, Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, the Zac Brown Band with their reved-up version of Charlie Daniel's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and Brooks & Dunn in their allegedly last-ever performance featuring ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons.
Brad Paisley, who co-hosted the event with Carrie Underwood, led the nominees with seven, and won two awards, including Best Male Vocalist of the Year for the third year in a row.
"This was the best time I've ever had at an awards show," Paisley said.
The country duo got lots of laughs throughout the night, especially when they opened the show with a few new songs of their own, including "Swine Flu" a parody of LeAnn Rime's "Blue," and a spoof of Kanye West for his interruption of Swift's VMA acceptance speech with "Mama don't let your babies grow up to be Kanye."
Later in the show, the joke continued when country singer Little Jimmy Dickens interrupted Paisley after Underwood told him that "Welcome to the Future" was one of her favorite videos.
"Excuse me sir, excuse me. I'll let you finish later. Now, Brad Paisley, I know you had a nice video, but Taylor Swift made the best video in her time. You go girl," Dickens said.
I think it's great that Taylor Swift finally got the respect and undivided (uninterrupted) attention she deserves for her musical accomplishments, while at the same time getting the last laugh over West. I think Dickens summed it up best; You go girl!
